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News on Health & Science

Human Urine May Cure Blood Pressure

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A study has identified a hormone from human urine, a xanthurenic-acid derivative, which might help safely flush sodium out of the body and could be harnessed to develop more effective and safer treatments for high blood pressure, or hypertension.

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The Cornell and the Boyce Thompson Institute for Plant Research (BTI) study, co-authored by Frank Schroeder, an assistant scientist at BTI, developed a new technique for analysing complex mixtures of small molecules, making it possible to finally identify the natural hormone.

In the rat-model based study, Schroeder developed an approach based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy of partially purified urine.

NMR spectroscopy is the most powerful tool chemists used to determine the structures of unknown compounds. It has only been used for the analysis of purified compounds.

In the study, the usage of the technique revealed three completely new compounds, each of which was subsequently synthesized and injected into rats. The rats’ urine was then monitored.

Two of the identified compounds, derivatives of a common metabolite xanthurenic-acid, raised sodium levels in the rat’s urine but kept potassium levels constant.

Schroeder said that while aldosterone was a steroid hormone, the newly discovered molecule was structurally more similar to such amino acid-derived neurotransmitters as dopamine and serotonin and, therefore, might also play other roles in the body.

“Now, we want to know what other functions these compounds have and whether they directly influence blood pressure,” Schroeder said.

The study is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Source: The Times Of India

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News on Health & Science

Obese girls’ heart-sat risk

Girls as young as age nine who are overweight are at heightened risk for serious short-term and long-term health problems that put them at increased risk for developing heart disease, a study released today said. For example, overweight girls are more likely to have elevated blood pressure and cholesterol compared with their normal-weight counterparts……..CLICK & SEE

In the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institut’s Growth and Health Study, 1,166 Caucasian and 1,213 African American girls aged 9-10 were tracked for more than 10 years.

Researchers measured the girl’s  height, weight, blood pressure, and cholesterol annually through age 18. They also obtained self-reported measures at ages 21 to 23 years.

The study published in the Journal of Pediatrics said, overweight rates increased through adolescence from 7 to 10 per cent in the Caucasian girls and from 17 to 24 percent in African American girls.

Girls were 1.6 times more likely to become overweight between 9 and 12 years of age than in later adolescence.

Source:The Telegraph (Kolkata,India)

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Healthy Tips

Best Flu Remedies

Fenugreek6 steps to take at the first sign of flu symptoms.

At the First Sign of the Flu
Unlike the common cold, which is annoying but ultimately harmless, the flu can be dangerous — even deadly. Your best bet? Focusing on the twin Super Threats of chronic stress and immune weakness. With a strong immune system, you’re much more likely to fight off this potential killer.
If you do get the flu, act fast. Prescription antiviral medications can help you get better faster, and numerous studies find that natural remedies can also significantly reduce the amount of time you suffer — but you need to take them at the very first sign of symptoms, or as a precaution during flu season.

Do This Now
Follow these six steps at the first sign of the flu.
1. Call your doctor and ask for an antiviral medication such as amantadine, rimantadine, zanamivir, or oseltamivir.

2. At the same time, start taking 1 tablespoon of the liquid elderberry extract Sambucol   four times a day for three to five days.

3. Also start taking the homeopathic remedy Anas Barbariae Hepatis et cordis extractum 200c, more commonly known as Oscillococcinum or Flu Remedy. Follow the dosage instructions on the package.

4. To relieve headache and achiness, take 500 to 1,000 milligrams of enteric-coated aspirin, 200 milligrams of ibuprofen, or 500 to 1,000 milligrams of acetaminophen every four to six hours, or 275 milligrams of naproxen twice a day. Don’t take acetaminophen if you have liver disease. Don’t give aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen to children or adolescents (use acetaminophen instead).

5. Now that you’re medicated, work on bringing your fever down to make yourself more comfortable. Start with cool compresses on the pulse points at the neck, throat, and wrists.

6. If your fever is still high and you’re still achy, add a cup of Epsom or sea salt to a warm tub, soak for 20 minutes, then wrap up warmly and lie under blankets to induce a sweat. Adding 10 to 15 drops of eucalyptus or peppermint oil to the bath will help with congestion, cough, and muscle aches.

Why It Works, Plus More Approaches
Antiviral drugs can decrease the severity and length of your infection if you take them within the first day or two of symptoms. They’re particularly helpful if you got the flu even though you were vaccinated, because chances are you’re dealing with a different strain from the ones in the vaccine.

Sambucol also fights the flu directly. One well-designed study of 60 patients, all of whom had the flu, found that those who received the supplement were nearly recovered by the third or fourth day of treatment, whereas it took seven to eight days for the people in the placebo group to feel better. Researchers think that compounds called anthocyanins in elderberry may be responsible; they boost the immune system and also seem to prevent the flu virus from sticking to cells.

The other treatments are all about making you more comfortable and relieving aches and pains. The warm bath has an added effect: it causes a slight increase in body temperature, which makes bacteria-killing enzymes more effective, potentially helping to prevent a secondary bacterial infection when your defenses are down.

Other Medicines and Approaches
Fenugreek. If you’re coughing, take 2 capsules three or four times a day. This herb helps thin mucus and also soothes a dry cough. (Note that it makes your urine smell sweet.)

Cough suppressants. If you want to use a cough suppressant, choose one that contains dextromethorphan. At night, try Delsym, which lasts for 12 hours.

Sports creams. For body aches, massage a pain-relief rub or sports cream like Ben-Gay or Tiger Balm onto the achy areas.

Fluids. Drink lots and lots of fluids, both hot and cold. Avoid caffeinated and overly sweet drinks like sodas and undiluted fruit juices.

From:Best Remedies

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Meditation

Clean Your Arteries With Meditation

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Enter the right state of mind and reduce plaque levels!

Learning to meditate could actually help your body clean out its arteries, according to a study published in Stroke, a journal of the American Heart Association.

The researchers assigned 60 African American men and women with high blood pressure to either a transcendental meditation (TM) program or a control group. The TM group practiced meditation 20 minutes twice a day. After seven months researchers found that the people in this group lowered their plaque levels (measured by carotid intima-media thickness, or IMT, which reflects the level of fatty substances deposited on the artery walls), reducing their overall heart attack risk up to 11 percent and their stroke risk up to 15 percent. The other group had no reduction; in fact, their plaque levels increased.

“Cardiovascular disease is associated with psychological stress,” explained Amparo Castillo-Richmond, M.D., the study’s lead author. “Previous research has found that the TM program decreases coronary heart disease risk factors, including hypertension, oxidized lipids, stress hormones, and psychological stress.” Moreover, according to the researchers, the state of “restful alertness” brought on by meditation may trigger the body’s self-repair mechanisms.

A later study found that when it comes to reducing atherosclerosis, the overall effectiveness of a program that involved meditation and yoga along with a high-fiber, low-fat diet, aerobic exercise, and antioxidant supplements was even greater than in studies involving cholesterol-lowering drugs.

From:Cut Your Cholesterol

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Ailmemts & Remedies

Coughs

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Definition:    A cough is our body’s way of responding to irritants in our throat and airways. An irritant stimulates nerves there to send a cough impulse to the brain. The brain signals the muscles of our abdomen and chest wall to give a strong push of air to our lungs to try to expel the irritant.

It is a sudden and often repetitively occurring reflex which helps to clear the large breathing passages from secretions, irritants, foreign particles and microbes. The cough reflex consists of three phases: an inhalation, a forced exhalation against a closed glottis, and a violent release of air from the lungs following opening of the glottis, usually accompanied by a distinctive sound. Coughing is either voluntary or involuntary.

A coughing attack can be very forceful — the velocity of air from a vigorous cough through the nearly closed vocal cords can approach 500 miles per hour. Prolonged, vigorous coughing is exhausting and can cause sleeplessness, headaches, urinary incontinence, and even broken ribs.
Frequent coughing usually indicates the presence of a disease. Many viruses and bacteria benefit evolutionarily by causing the host to cough, which helps to spread the disease to new hosts. Most of the time, irregular coughing is caused by a respiratory tract infection but can also be triggered by choking, smoking, air pollution, asthma, gastroesophageal reflux disease, post-nasal drip, chronic bronchitis, lung tumors, heart failure and medications such as ACE inhibitors.

An occasional cough is normal and healthy. A cough that persists for several weeks or one that brings up discolored or bloody mucus may indicate an underlying condition that requires medical attention. A cough rarely requires emergency care.

Cough is a helpful phenomenon, it is the body’s natural reflex to irritation in the throat. There are two kinds of cough, one which is wet and associated with mucus (productive cough); and the other which is dry and there is no mucus (unproductive cough). It is important to differentiate between the two, because the treatments are entirely different.....CLICK & SEE

Causes:  The list of possible causes of cough is long and highly varied. Doctors classify coughs into 2 categories, acute and chronic. Many doctors define an acute cough as one that been present for less than 3 weeks. Chronic coughs are those present for more than 3 weeks.

  • Acute coughs can be divided into infectious (caused by an infection) and noninfectious causes.
  • Noninfectious causes of cough include flare-ups of the following chronic conditions: chronic bronchitis, emphysema, asthma, and environmental allergies.
  • The easiest way to simplify the causes of chronic cough is to divide them into their locations with respect to the lungs. The categories are environmental irritants, conditions within the lungs, conditions along the passages that transmit air from the lungs to the environment, conditions within the chest cavity but outside of the lungs, and digestive causes.
  • Any environmental substance that irritates the air passages or the lungs is capable of producing a chronic cough with continued exposure. Cigarette smoke is the most common cause of chronic cough. Other cough-producing irritants include dusts, pollens, pet dander, particulate matter, industrial chemicals and pollution, cigar and pipe smoke, and low environmental humidity.
  • Within the lungs both common and uncommon conditions cause chronic cough. Common causes include asthma, emphysema, and chronic bronchitis. Less common causes of lung-induced chronic cough include cancer, sarcoidosis, diseases of the lung tissue, and congestive heart failure with chronic fluid build-up in the lungs.
  • The passages that connect the lungs to the external environment are known as the upper respiratory tract. Chronic sinus infections, chronic postnasal drip, diseases of the external ear, infections of the throat, and use of ACE inhibitors for high blood pressure have all been implicated in chronic cough.
  • In addition to disease processes within the lung and air passages, diseases elsewhere within the chest cavity may also be responsible for chronic cough. Conditions within the chest known to cause chronic cough include cancer, unusual growth of a lymph node, and an abnormal enlargement of the aorta, which is the main blood vessel leaving the heart.
  • An often-overlooked cause of the chronic cough is gastroesophageal reflux (GERD). GERD occurs when acid from the stomach travels up the esophagus. This abnormal condition can cause irritation of the esophagus and larynx resulting in the reflex production of a cough.

In the case of productive cough, coughing helps in removing excess mucus or phlegm which has come up in the back of the throat from the lungs or the nose and sinuses. A common cause of coughing in the night is mucus dripping from the nose into the back of the throat. Expectorant syrups , specially herbal base cough syrup can be used to get rid of the phlegm. Note that productive coughs should never be suppressed since they serve a very useful purpose. Night-time irritation of a chield can be eased by turning the child on his side or his front. A doctor should be consulted in case the cough lasts for more than 48 hours.

Unproductive coughs on the other hand serve no useful purpose, and can be very irritating to a small child, sometimes to the extent of preventing sleep. In this case, cough suppressants can help ease the discomfort.

Complications:   The complications of coughing can be classified as either acute or chronic. Acute complications include cough syncope (fainting spells due to decreased blood flow to the brain when coughs are prolonged and forceful), insomnia, cough-induced vomiting, rupture of blebs causing spontaneous pneumothorax (although this still remains to be proven), subconjunctival hemorrhage or “red eye”, coughing defecation and in women with a prolapsed uterus, cough urination. Chronic complications are common and include abdominal or pelvic hernias, fatigue fractures of lower ribs and costochondritis.

Diagnosis:  The diagnose of the cause of a cough usually begins by determining if it is specific or nonspecific in nature. A specific cough is one associated with other symptoms and further workup is dependent on these symptoms while a non specific cough occurs without other signs and symptoms. Further workup may include labs, x rays, and spirometry.
Treatment:  Treatment should target the cause as per diagnosis; for example, smoking cessation or discontinuing ACE inhibitors. Cough suppressants such as codeine or dextromethorphan are frequently prescribed, but have been demonstrated to have little effect. Other treatment options may target airway inflammation or may promote mucus expectoration. As it is a natural protective reflex, suppressing the cough reflex might have damaging effects, especially if the cough is productive.

In children half of cases go away without treatment in 10 days and 90% in 25 days.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics the use of cough medicine to relieve cough symptoms is supported by little evidence and thus not recommended for treating cough symptoms in children. There is tentative evidence that the use of honey is better than no treatment or diphenhydramine in decreasing coughing. It appeared similar to dextromethorphan. A trial of antibiotics or inhaled corticosteroids may be tried in children with a chronic cough in an attempt to treat protracted bacterial bronchitis or asthma respectively.
Home Care for prevention :
If one has asthma or another chronic lung disease, he or she should make sure to taking medicines prescribed by  the doctor.

Some helpful tips to ease cough:

*If one has a dry, tickling cough, try cough drops or hard candy. Never give these to a child under age 3, because they can cause choking.
*Use a vaporizer or take a steamy shower. These increase moisture in the air and help soothe a dry throat.
*Drink plenty of fluids. Liquids help thin the mucus in your throat making it easier to cough it up.
*Do not smoke and stay away from secondhand smoke

Medicines can be bought on own include:

*Guaifenesin helps break up mucus. Drink lots of fluids if you take this medicine.
*Decongestants help clear a runny nose and relieve postnasal drip. Check with your doctor before taking decongestants if you have high blood pressure.
* In case of children the doctor should be consulted before giving a child 6 years old or younger an over-the-counter cough medicine, even if it is labeled for children. These medicines likely do not work for children, and can have serious side effects.

If one has seasonal allergies, such as hay fever:
*Stay indoors during days or times of the day (usually the morning) when airborne allergens are high.
*Keep windows closed and use an air conditioner.
*Do not use fans that draw in air from outdoors.
*Shower and change clothes after being outside.
If one has allergies year-round, cover pillows and mattress with dust mite covers, use an air purifier, and avoid pets and other triggers.

IN GENERAL NATURAL AND HERBAL COUGH REMEDIES SHOULD BE ADOPTED TO GET RID OF SIDE EFFECTS OF MODERN COUGH SYRUPS WHICH WE NORMALY USE.

Sometimes Homeopathic medication works well.
Disclaimer: This information is not meant to be a substitute for professional medical advise or help. It is always best to consult with a Physician about serious health concerns. This information is in no way intended to diagnose or prescribe remedies.This is purely for educational purpose.
Resources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cough
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003072.htm
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/coughs/page2_em.htm

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